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There's A New Art Director Goin On, JOSHSAM internetviews A & R / Art Dept Head mGee aka Mike Gregoire

The online world is moving and changing fast and people are finding new opportunities opening to them all the time, one minute you can be a Bachelor of Fine Arts student and then the next you can find your spare time occupied by design work for SlamJamz. In the case of gregoire aka mGee that is exactly what happened and he is definitely showing that the musicians are not the only artists finding an outlet through SlamJamz.

JOSHSAM: How did you get hooked up with SlamJamz?

GREGOIRE: This was a moment that proved to myself the power of not holding back from simply asking. Attempting to go after something that in all likelihood wouldn?t pan out.

A while back Chuck D posted on the www.publicenemy.com Enemyboard that he was looking for some folks to volunteer as Slamjamz Virtual A&R staff. I decided to give it a go, since I believe so highly in the label and what it stands for.

I emailed Chuck stating that I?d like to help out. I also decided to ask him something that I had been wondering about. I asked him who was in charge of cover designs for Slamjamz releases. I was curious if he was in charge, and if so, would he like some help. I explained to him my background and that was that. He responded that he mainly took care of the covers (which blew me away, because of his already crazy schedule). As to helping out, he responded positively! I couldn?t believe it! Here I am in Maine and I?m going to be helping out Chuck D and Slamjamz!

JOSHSAM: With the cover art you seem to have a combination of covers that are influenced by the songs directly (?10 Seconds to Panic? by Panic Merchants) and others, which seem to have no obvious link (?Anticipation? by Propdusta 13). How do you decide on what approach you are going to take, or is it a spur of the moment thing?

GREGOIRE: It isn?t so much a matter of the covers having something to do with the music or not. It?s more of how obvious I want to make the connection. Sometimes a song, just from the title, is able to inspire many mental images and the development comes quickly. These usually turn out to be the more obvious connections between music and image. Other times, the title is more general or abstract and this forces me to dig a little deeper. In these instances, I may have to try and find a visual metaphor for the title. For example, with ?Anticipation?, it seemed a possibility that this track could be Propdusta 13?s first release. Which made me think of how I?m sure he was truly anticipating the release of this track to an international audience at Slamjamz. Visually I wanted to represent him as anticipating in some way. Repeating his graphic representation on the image was my way of showing his anticipating and confident stance out front of the world audience.

JOSHSAM: You?re doing a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a Major in Graphic Design, where do you hope to be in ten years from now with your qualification under your belt? Do you think working on SlamJamz will help with your anticipated career?

GREGOIRE: You know. That question, I have been seriously contemplating for a long time. I look at the average route that graphic designers follow (little design firm > large design firm > art director) and I question if that is the only route that I have to take.

Among all career paths for an artist to take, graphic design is one of the few that you can actually find yourself making income right out of school. A painter has no such advantages. In this way, I believe that route that designers follow is a benefit.

What I question is why can?t a graphic designer find his own path in order to be an artist/designer in a more independent manner. One that doesn?t involve submitting to the standard path of a design firm, or a corporate art department.

My hope for the next ten years is to be able to comfortably work on a freelance basis in ways that allow me to merge my love for music and art. Working in this manner will afford me the freedom and ability to explore other realms of expression such as what I?m currently working on with a friend of mine. The project is a book/CD-ROM project in which we explore our city (Portland, Me) through photos, illustrations, fiction and non-fiction. We will finance it ourselves and release it in a limited 200 copy run. Hopefully the project will be the first of many such projects in which I am able to give the world my personal vision.

Slamjamz will definitely help me to establish myself and get exposure in an arena where I can merge my love for music and imagery.

As a result of doing some covers for Slamjamz, Chuck D made the completely unbelievable offer to me to design the packaging for the forth-coming Public Enemy release ?Revolverlution?! I was completely taken aback by this! Wow!!! Not only do I get to do covers for Slamjamz, but I also get to fulfil a dream that was foreshadowed by a high-school magazine project in which the primary theme was Public Enemy! Ha Ha! Definitely a moment where you pinch yourself and make sure it?s not a dream.

JOSHSAM: How is the course going? How long have you to go on it now?

GREGOIRE: The design courses are going very well. Though right now I?m just kind of going with the flow and fulfilling all my liberal arts courses. I have one more full year to complete before graduation.

JOSHSAM: The whole thing with SlamJamz of using a collection of people from all walks of life (whether experienced or not) is very experimental and revolutionary. Does knowing you are part of something so different make you want to push your art that little bit further or experiment in different ways?

GREGOIRE: Definitely. I?m truly honoured to be a part of something so new and original. It also helps to have someone like Chuck D heading it up. Only a true artist can understand artistic expression and allow such a large amount of experimentation that is happening at Slamjamz.

What excites me most about doing covers for Slamjamz is the fact that I can have a hand in maybe creating a ?Slamjamz? look. Knowing that Chuck D likes jazz designs, I?m sure he has had a vision of this as well. When you think about Blue Note Records, you not only think about the quality of their releases, you also immediately think of that Blue Note look. I don?t want to emulate the Blue Note look, but I would love to develop a look that is distinctly Slamjamz. Something as memorable as a Don Cherry, John Coltrane or Herbie Hancock cover would be an achievement.

JOSHSAM: I did a Graphical Communications course at college about 10 years ago and the emphasis was very much on hand drawn graphics and images, very little was done on the computer. Now computers seem to be standard tools, do you think that they have improved the quality of the work that can be produced? Made life easier? Is there a downside to the technology being so readily available?

GREGOIRE: With technology, there comes both benefits and disadvantages. I think the computer is wonderful tool that can help you achieve visual moments that were close to impossible 10-15 years ago. Though with this great advantage, there also has to be awareness by the artist to not depend on the technology. The technology will not give you expression; it will only help you achieve it. Just as always, an artist/designer has to be a thinking being. We shouldn?t be creating images and designs simply to achieve a certain look or my most hated word ?style?. To me the word ?style? sums up the problem with the computer. Everyone is just trying to create ?cool? images. Eye candy. It is too common today for designers and digital artists to get caught up in the look and not think about what they?re saying.

Another element that is lost when strictly working digitally is the human element. The spontaneity that can be achieved through manually sketching and collaging cannot be emulated digitally. Much like music, it is beneficial sometimes to bring in that human element by importing or scanning it in.

In past projects I have tried to find unique ways of bringing in that human element, such as videotaping and photographing my process of creating a larger than life-size figure study and then creating an interactive piece from the footage and photos.

JOSHSAM: Are you constantly collecting images to use in your work at later date; i.e., you see something you like but have no use for it at that time, but you save it in case there is a project you could use it on?

GREGOIRE: Although I take my own photos with the school?s digital camera that I have access to every now and then, I usually hunt down the images on a per project basis. This allows for a more contextually relevant connection between the music or theme of whatever I?m working on. I have a few online sources where I can get free (or close to free) royalty free images. This stage of the project is usually the most difficult because this is where I get maybe 10-15 images that may or may not ultimately make the grade for the final product.

JOSHSAM: A lot of people take album covers for granted, just something nice to wrap the CD in. Would you agree with this or can they be more than that in some cases?

GREGOIRE: I think that if a musical artist is releasing a CD that they have worked feverishly on for months, it is only right that they try and represent that musical vision in a package that enhances the listener?s experience. Though today, in many cases, the label takes control of this aspect and treats it as if it?s just something they have to do and throw anything together. Besides the cost of CDs, this is another reason why the listener?s have turned to file-sharing programs such as Napster. What advantage is there to owning the CD when the packaging is crap?

My wife recently purchased the new Def Leppard DVD collection of their videos. When I saw the package, I honestly felt bad for the band. Here was a rock group that was at the top of the charts for such a long period and now their label has hijacked them and their fans by packaging what could have been a wonderful collection of videos into the absolutely worse designed package that I?ve ever seen. From the interface to the packaging, everything looked as if monkeys did it.

I think artists need to be more pro-active in the design process of the packaging for their art that they?re releasing to the world with their name stamped on it. Whether the label?s want to admit it or not, the packaging is an integral part of a CD release. In the future, if there is any incentive to purchasing a CD rather than downloading it for free off the Internet, the packaging WILL be an important part of this incentive.

JOSHSAM: You have said to me in the past that you have a fixation on music, which groups would you put in your top ten list? (Not necessarily in order)

GREGOIRE: Wow. Tough one. There are so many genres of music that I love. Ok. In no particular order:

Billy Joel

Curtis Mayfield

Ella Fitzgerald

Public Enemy (for real, not just because I?m doing the cover)

Prince

Jurassic 5

Beastie Boys

Van Halen

David Bowie

UTFO

Marvin Gaye

Ok ok? I know?but one more?

Rakim

I could have gone on and on and on? I know I left out so many greats.

JOSHSAM: Only a few people will have seen it at the time of this interview, but where did the idea come from for the cover for Panic Merchants ?Blistered Ego? track? (NOTE: The cover features a Lexus car a bird has used, as it?s own personal toilet). Was it another example of an image that fit the title?

GREGOIRE: Well, when I went looking for images, I was trying to define what exactly a blistered ego would look like. It was a rather abstract phrase and had no pre-thought vision. Well, I came across the image and to me, it was the absolute perfect metaphor for a Blistered Ego.

JOSHSAM: You have a very distinct style to your covers (with the colours used for example), or the ones I have seen so far. Is it important to you that people see your work and can tell instantly that it was yours? Do you see your work, not only with SlamJamz but generally, as constantly progressing?

GREGOIRE: Ahem?that word ?style?. It makes me cringe. :) But really, I never set out trying to achieve a certain look. People often tell me that much of my work has a certain visual relationship. I?m not sure if that?s a good thing or not. I do consciously try and create work based on the context of the project. I also consciously try and breakout of habits that I tend to get sometimes. I don?t look at art as ever progressing or regressing, but it does change all the time. I hope what I create does show some kind of development.

JOSHSAM: People can find out more about you and your work at your online portfolio site http://www.mecadesign.org/m.gregoire Again, dredging up my short stint as a graphics student, I remember dragging around my portfolio when I was going for interviews at Universities, but now you have your stuff online. Is this another way the web has changed things, has it made life easier from this point of view?

GREGOIRE: Yes and No. What the web has done, it has allowed an artist/designer to promote themselves on global level. Where once in order to be able to promote yourself even remotely like this, you needed to print up many materials and mail them out to prospects. Now you just send a URL or a promotional card via email.

Still today, if you want to get a job in a firm, it would be unwise to go only armed with a disc of digital work; a design firm isn?t looking for someone who is only familiar with pixels. They want someone, who is able to successfully output printed materials, which is no easy task to pull off with certain colours. Of course there are firms who specialise in digital work. My opinion about these firms is that they are equally unfamiliar with traditional design processes and this fact should make any designer sceptical about their future there.

JOSHSAM: The work you do for SlamJamz is presented online, is that a double-edged sword; i.e., what limitations/freedoms does it offer with regards to the images you use or the designs you come up with?

GREGOIRE: When designing Slamjamz covers, I am designing for full resolution output, so I need to limit myself to hi-quality images as if I were designing for print. As far as the types of design I come up with. When I design for any medium, all questions are the same. The only thing that plays a part in the way a design works out is the context in which I?m designing. What the theme is of the piece I?m creating.

JOSHSAM: You also do some Flash design too, how does that differ from your everyday work? Does it allow greater freedom of expression and experimentation?

GREGOIRE: Again, in Flash as in any other medium, you have some of the same design considerations. The main difference is what you do with it and why you are choosing to use flash and not let?s say html. Are you creating a website? If so, is it a text-based site? Does it need animated elements? Or are you animating? Once you have answered these questions and know that you have a need to use flash for the project at hand, you then need to find ways to engage the user. You also need to be weary of using too many gimmicky tricks (e.g. flying, exploding or rotating text. Exploitation of colour gradients. Flash can be a terrific tool and as in any other technology, it can be misused in horrible ways as well.

GREGOIRE: As a last note. I know I already thanked Chuck, but I wanted to thank him again for the opportunity he has given me.